Exploring Anping Old Street: Taiwan’s First Street
Visit Anping Old Street (安平老街) with me in Tainan! I’m back in Taiwan for short while, and I’ve got so much great Taiwanese food to show you! Our last day in Tainan was the only day it didn’t rain, so we decided to explore Anping Old Street (安平老街), the first named street in Taiwan. Come with me to explore Anping Old Street and this beautiful harbor town filled with local history, culture, and food!
How To Get To Anping Old Street
About 300 years ago, the Dutch people in Taiwan built the first official road and named it Anping Street (安平街). Today, the streets have been expanded and preserved to showcase some of the original architecture from the Dutch occupation. It’s one of the spots in Taiwan where you can see a much older, historic snapshot of Taiwan compared to Taipei.
To get to Anping Old Street, you can take the local #2 or #88 bus from the Tainan Train Station, which should take about 40-50 minutes. You can also take the Taiwan Tour #99 Anping Taijiang Route(安平台江線) to the Anping Fort Station.
Interesting Spots Around Anping Old Street
Anping Old Street is located in a harbor town, and naturally, their daily lives revolve around the ocean. The town has build much of its culture and art around their fishing lifestyle, and Mazu, the goddess of the sea, for her blessings on their many voyages. Everywhere in Anping, you can see motifs of sea creatures and the goddess’s likeness.
Taiwan’s First Mazu Temple – Anping Mazu Temple
One of the busiest spots in town is the Anping Mazu Temple – the biggest temple in Anping and the first Mazu temple in Taiwan. Like much of the city, the temple is dedicated to the goddess of the sea. Inside this temple sits a statue of Mazu brought over from Fujian in 1668 by Zheng Chenggong, who defeated the Dutch in Taiwan. Of course, where there’s a temple, there’s a market. Tiny stalls line the entrance areas of the temple, selling little treats and offerings.
The religious community here takes great pride in carrying out elaborate celebration events to honor the goddess yearly, and it’s quite a sight. We were lucky enough to be visiting the temple during their annual Mazu Birthday Celebration. It was the first sunny day in a while, so EVERYONE was out. Traditional musicians and lion dancers entertained the masses ALL DAY, and it was such a fun event!
Lin Mo-Niang Memorial Park
Dom an I stumbled upon Lin Mo-Niang Park accidentally last time I was here, and now, I bring my parents. This cute little park was commemorates Lin Mo-Niang (林默娘), which is the original name of Mazu, the goddess of the sea, before she was deified. A giant statue of her stands tall in the park, watching over Anping Harber, protecting fisherman and sailors out in sea.
What To Eat Near Anping Old Street
Anping Old Street is dotted with souvenir snack shops and street foods, many of which still made with the traditional techniques of the past. Visitors often come to Anping Old Street for their walking food tour. We were lucky to finally have a sunny day to explore all the eats on and near Anping Old Street.
Freshly Fried Shrimp Chips – 熱富蝦餅
All up and down Anping Old Street, you’ll smell and hear these freshly popped shrimp chips from a mile away. These are so popular here! Shrimp Chips are a particularly well liked treat here in Anping, so you can see them everywhere. They’re airy and light, packed with umami shrimpy flavor. So easy to snack on a bag of them! You can hear the machines pop as they’re making these shrimp chips fresh in front of your eyes.
We dropped by 熱富蝦餅 to have a taste, and they’re as big as my face! Here at 熱富蝦餅 they sell traditional pastries and shrimp chips perfect as souvenirs. They have both a deep fried and a healthier air-popped shrimp chips in a variety of flavors: pepper, plum, wasabi, seaweed, spicy, and more. If you’re not sure what flavor you’d like, there’s no worry! They offer free samples, so try them out before you decide.
Mini Coffin Board Toast – Anping Fort Coffin Toast
One unique food you can find more regularly in the south of Taiwan is Coffin Board Toast. Named because it’s shaped similar to a coffin, it’s a hollowed out slice of deep fried thick cut toast with creamy seafood chowder poured into the middle. Usually, Coffin Board Bread comes in a large slice, and is a pretty substantial meal. But here at Anping Fort Coffin Toast 王城迷你官財板, you can get a mini coffin board bread, so you can taste test and not feel stuffed.
The mini Coffin Board Toast comes about the size of my hand and it’s super cute. The deep fried toast base is satisfyingly crunchy but the bread inside was nice and fluffy. Inside, the creamy rich chowder contains carrots, peas, corn, and squid. In one bite, it’s like the world’s tiniest bread bowl. At 25 NTD (60 NTD for a full sized one) the mini coffin toast is the perfect size for walking and snacking.
Tofu Pudding – Anping Bean Jelly
Anping Bean Jelly 同記安平豆花 was originally a rickshaw stand 50 years ago, but now has 4 branches right in Anping. They’re such a Taiwanese dessert classic, they’ve been recommended by even CNN! For a hot day, this is the best place to take a dessert break!
They have so many flavors, but their classics are the red bean tofu pudding and the mini boba tofu pudding. The smooth and creamy homemade tofu pudding has that deep soybean flavor we all love, covered in smoky caramelized simple syrup. On top, they add scoops of mini boba or red bean for some chew. It’s so good that my mom always gets two servings every time she comes.
Each serving range from 35-60 NTD, depending on what you add, and if you buy 10 orders, you get one free. They can get busy, but they actually have 3 other branches nearby. It’s a great cold treat in the hot Taiwan weather!
Fresh Cut Beef Soup – A-Cai Beef Soup
If there’s any specific dish that’s truly uniquely Southern Taiwanese, it’s fresh cut beef soup. As a major beef producer in the area, Tainan in no stranger to really fresh beef. A-Cai Beef Soup 阿財牛肉湯, like many beef soup restaurants in Tainan, prides themselves in room temperature beef.
What exactly is Taiwan’s room temperature beef (溫體牛)? Many of Tainan’s beef soup restaurants have either their own butcher, or a butcher shop they work with so they can have freshly butchered beef daily, giving them the freshest flavor. The beef is delivered without refrigeration to ensure that the temperature change doesn’t affect the quality of the meat.
The menu consists of soups made with various cuts of beef or organs, beef noodles and rice, and some other beef dishes. It’s probably the beefiest menu you’ve ever seen. Prices are around 120-200 NTD a plate, and each dish is generously portioned.
Of course, you can’t miss the original fresh cut beef soup. The bowl comes with a generous amount of pink sliced beef cooking in hot broth, just like pho. The beef broth looks light, but is packed with sweet beefy flavor. If you get the 250 NTD Premium Beef Soup, you’ll get better, fattier cuts of beef in your soup.
We also ordered some beef with water spinach (, beef chow mein, and beef fried rice. As someone who’s super picky about my fried rice, the beef fried rice here is seriously elite. Every grain of rice is perfectly cooked and seasoned, and the beef looks like a tender medium-rare.
I will travel hours just to eat here every time I visit. In fact, I took my friend here last summer and she says she still dreams about this beef soup. You definitely cannot miss this soup if you’re heading to Anping! They open at 12 pm and always have a long line, so be here early. They also have multiple branches in town, there’s plenty of options!
Steamed Traditional Scholar Cakes – 泉記米行狀元糕
Walking down Anping Old Street, we came across the tiniest, most unassuming rice shop, 泉記米行狀元糕, selling traditional Scholar Cakes. Named because they look like the scholar hats of ancient China, these steamed rice cakes are also called “Scholar Cakes” 狀元糕. Made by filling molds with sticky rice flour and sesame or peanut sugar, these cakes are steamed and come in packs of 6 for $96 TND or 10 for $160 TND. Because of it’s association with scholars, many students come to eat this traditional dessert before exams for good luck.
These scholar cakes were so good, we went back for seconds! Fresh off the grill, they’re steaming and soft, filled with sesame or peanut powder. If you let it cool a little, the texture changes completely into a chewier, bouncier, mochi-like bite. I daresay it gets better after it cools a bit! Don’t miss out on these scholar cakes, because it’s harder and harder to find in Taiwan now.
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